R J Reynolds Co

The nation's second-largest tobacco company engaged in a conspiracy out of greed to hide the truth about the dangers of smoking, an attorney for a lung-cancer patient told a jury as a lawsuit trial opened in Belleville, Ill. At the trial, the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that warning labels do not shield cigarette makers from lawsuits, an attorney for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. countered that the dying man knew the hazards when he smoked.

The Times carried a very good article on smoking and teen-agers ("All Fired Up" Aug. 16). An excellent article, well illustrated, citing anti-smoking agencies, governmental and private, as well as R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and the Tobacco Institute, both of which are conducting (anti-smoking) advertising campaigns targeting teen-agers. A darned good article that left one thing out: The federal government subsidizes the growing of tobacco.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has mailed smokers videotapes to get its message on TV screens despite the two-decade-long ban on cigarette commercials. The nation's second-largest cigarette maker says the 78-second videotape commercial about its low-tar Now cigarette is targeted at smokers of Carlton, made by American Brands. Reynolds says the videotapes do not violate Congress' intent when it banned cigarette commercials. "We're not forcing anyone to watch it.

A federal judge on Friday threw out a $55-million liability suit against R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., saying a 51-year-old amputee failed to prove the company's cigarettes were more dangerous than a consumer should expect. Plaintiff Floyd Roysdon, 51, of Oneida, contended that a lifetime of smoking the company's Camel and Winston cigarettes had caused problems with his circulatory system that led to the amputation of his left leg in 1983. But U.S. District Judge Thomas G.